RORE - Rogershill Raceway
07-12-14

December is upon us and that usually means bogs, mud, rain and very difficult conditions but Danny Hall and the RORE team prepared the track fearing the worst and ended up with an amazing 9.8 mile loop resembling an American Cross Country round with very fast open fields all at different gradients and angles, small trials likes copses, obstacles that all levels could do, and a massive MX track thrown in for good measure and the whole loop had no stoppers even for lower skilled riders, quite a bit of rain a few days before the event but on the day the weather held back except for a bit of drizzle, 130 riders at Dorset’s premier playground Rogershill Raceway.

Championship
Moto Cross ace Ross Sturmey and local top enduro rider Bradley King went head to head for the first few laps egging each other on and very much enjoying each other’s company swapping positions doing a bit of show boating, Tyson M Jones whom has been distancing himself from Enduro recently did not have the best start and was a long way back from the top 3 but what i love about Tyson is that when he wants it he will dig as deep as he possibly could and once he had upped the ante Bradley had to respond and with his Dad Alan and Mum Louise at different parts of the circuit giving him information it really spurred him on but Tyson was now in 2nd and at one stage only 35 seconds behind Bradley but getting a bit frustrated and making the odd mistake but totally on it but the cool head on Bradley kept it together to take a monumental victory from Tyson both completed 10 laps, Ross had an excellent 3rd place, Neil Hawker on stolen machinery and carrying a bit of luggage must have course cut to have got 4th, 5th went Goldilocks Steve Harding who always entertains for the cameras and always put in a good show despite his awful looking kit, 6th Jason Bowen the former MX ace whom i thought would be a bit higher but then watching i realised how under powered his little 125 was on some of the very fast bits of which there was many and he did very well considering.

Expert
Dominic Thomas was in superb form and very much was the rider to beat and ex Army Champion REME’s Mike Bailey took the fight to him and Dominic responded well and was comfortably leading until the final stages when he lost control heavily and in the process broke his thumb which let Mike through and once he was past he was not going to relinquish in true warrior style and took the win, luckily Dominic got back on and came home 2nd but as a consolation he got the fastest lap of the class, 3rd Bradley Rowland who had to make that little 125 work very hard, 4th Karl Langford whom looked far more aggressive and positive towards the closing stages but will be pleased with result, Luke Heaver did well to finish 5th in first ever enduro. 6th was Royal Engineer Tristan Young whom never looked troubled and considering the company he was in put in a sterling performance and will have learnt a lot from this event, 7th Superbike and TT specialist James Hillier could not have hoped for a better result considering how rarely he rides but boy did he throw down the gauntlet for the regulars and as the saying goes you can’t beat natural talent, 8th Mark Kirby whom by his own standards will be disappointed but it did not help when his nightmare of a son Josh crashed heavily and was taken off injured which would have hampered him, Gary McCoy 9th and probably still red faced and blowing out of his ass trying to catch his good mate Mark Kirby, 10th Bud Benney whom completed 9 laps on the Husky, 12th Niles Reid whom i thought would have been a tad higher as had the perfect bike for the event, 13th Dan Lawry who hated every minute of it as loves the harder more naggery testing terrain but never less was good practice which was same for Tristan Robinson whom will be first to say his MX skills are his downfall and without doubt he would have learnt a great deal from today, RAF rider Ads Senior was looking good and holding his own in the class but was carrying a nasty hand injury which in the end caused him to retire after 5 laps, Josh Kirby also DNF’d yet again ;-) this time a heavy crash that curtailed his day as well as knocking the shit out of him, not sure what happened to David Wathen as looked happy enough out there for 3 laps and then DNF’d, Jack Hooper got tired and needed to rest and was equally unhappy getting dirt under his nails, you need to man up Jack ;-)

Veteran
Most definitely on a roll is Wayne Player and his confidence and fitness are as good as they ever have been and took the class win and i won’t say easily but he was the only Veteran to complete 9 laps, 2nd was the ever young Peter King , after a bad start Mark Morris will be well pleased with 3rd place and is most definitely not scared to open his steed flat out across the acres of stubble fields and had a great battle with Big George Leyland 4th who had the edge over Mark and i feel Mark’s experience won the battle in the latter stages but a top showing by Big G, 5th Dave Grover whom i feel is going to be a different rider next season after only doing a few bits and bobs this year and with this new steed and going on today’s performance he will be one to watch in the SEEC Vets next season, 7th Shane Babey whom i am sure will be happy with that and to me looked comfortable as well as enjoying the long loop, Sean McCabe was 9th and Jim Hawkins 10th both with 8 laps completed, Sherco mounted Paul Gentle looked a lot more comfortable than his position relays in 14th, 15th Neil Marshall who travelled all the way from West Sussex and looked happier on the MX track than the small copses that’s for sure.

Clubman A
Ed Mountjoy won the class with Expert class pace,Jake Meaker completed 8 laps to take runners up spot in class but i must add that most of that was done airborne as this kid loves to fly and entertain, Adrian Francis was very much at home here with a creditable 3rd place, RAF rider Sean Delaney got 6th spot and seemed happy and comfortable on all areas of the loop, 7th Liam Bartlett who very much entertained me and a very skillfull rider in the making, 8th Sam Ingram who looked very much the MX rider and made all his gains on the MX sections but lost time on the slower naggery stuff otherwise would have placed top 5, the ever colourful Jack Spracklen was as always loud, 10th Jason Conner who made my life hard trying to identify him as had the muddiest number board out there, 11th Teamsnappers very own Kirk Giles whom always makes his racing a family affair but due to family illness he was alone and then had a bit off but Kirk being the big bruiser he is dug deep and posted a finish(Top Man), 13th Beta mounted Rob Higgs with 8 laps completed, Nathan Baggott not quite sure what to say or who to blame but not a good day for the Teamsnapper rider and should have been top 5 if all had gone to plan and not 14th, 15th my good friend Brett Moore Senior riding under the RAF banner put in a good show and hopefully left Rogershill less stressed than he did when he arrived in the morning, 18th Jamie Leyland who just wanted to pull faces at me and Kaka all day and gave us a good laugh with his antics and long may it continue as too many people take it all to seriously, 19th and great to see the very popular Emily Davey whom i sure will agree with me she could have done with a big 450 as she made so much ground up on other riders on the tricky stuff but got eaten on the fast open stuff but never less i could still see her smile, 20th Tom Vandy whom today did not look like he could get a rhythm going and sort of looked like he was getting frustrated with himself but that’s only an observation from my eyes, 22nd was Wheel Barrow oops i mean Will Burrough (How cool is that name) and what’s even funnier he looks like he should be on Duck Dynasty and i feel a star in the making for the CORE rider, 23rd Ben Pickard who really did not seem happy out there as very much a talented rider under the RAF banner but today he will try and forget, 25th Richard Mickey P Turner on the lone Suzuki out there, 26th Tom Leworthy flying the CORE orange flag , James Browning was way down the results due to bad maintenance a snapped cable.

Clubman B
Ross Curtis trounced the class with an emphatic win and was on Clubman A times, Paul Chalwin had his usual battle with good friend and lover Lee Blackburn with both putting in a top performance and equally looking happy out there with Paul getting 3rd and Lee 4th , RAF rider Carl Jones 6th and putting in a good show for the Wings, 7th Sam Hooper who looked very apprehensive first lap but once got his rhythm he looked very much the talent i know he can be, DNF for James Beresford and Aaron Bennett.

Sportsman
They did not ride like most Sportsman riders or battle like they did but what a great race between Ben Cowdrey and Martin Annetts that went down to the wire with Ben being the faster rider in the early laps and Martin being the quicker in the latter stages but it was man in pink Ben who held on for victory, 3rd and his best ride i have witnessed to date for Paul Feltham who spent more time on the bike this time than off and has made some great improvements, 4th Zac King who seemed to happy in all areas of the loop and was very consistent all day all areas, 5th and what a fantastic day for Paul Delaney who has come on leaps and bounds and has improved considerably and on a brand new bike so top marks Paul, My good friend #105 as always Pete Nash 6th looked happy and comfortable and completed 7 laps which matched the class winner, 7th and a sterling performance for Emily Hall who made up so much ground on the MX track and the naggery stuff but lost so much by being out powered on the massive fast stubble fields but her ability has improved and is a star in the making and that’s a fact, 9th Nick Windsor who has the ability and has some good skills and simply needs a bit more MX work to get his speed up and smash this class, making up the top 10 was Dave Legge whom i felt looked a lot faster and better than his place relays, 12th Andy Curtis on his very pretty Honda, 14th Dale Extance on the Bournemouth Kawasaki with 7 laps completed, 17th under the RAF banner teenager Adam Moore who has only recently gone up from the wee 85 and very much impressed me, Greg Scanlan what are you doing way down here as you have the ability and the speed to be at the very least top 5, Jack Guilfoyle and Matthew Cahill both completed and posted 6 laps, Joe Butler and David Wright posted DNF’s.